Conceived by Len Cariou, Barry Kleinbort and Mark Janas, Broadway and the Bard made its Off-Broadway premiere in 2016 and opened to general acclaim. The New York Times raved, “Intelligent and eloquent… Mr. Cariou makes for jovial company and draws the audience into a comfortable intimacy with little effort.” Curtain Up wrote, “It is a delicious confection of Shakespeare and Broadway songs, served a la Cariou.” And Onstage also chimed in: “The iconic stage actor and his accompanist (Mark Janis), in collaboration with director Barry Kleinbort, triumph in achieving Mr. Cariou’s idea of combining his two great loves – Shakespeare and the American Musical.”

Although recognized for his presence on television for the past eight seasons (as Tom Selleck’s dyspeptic father on the long running hit series “Blue Bloods,”) Mr. Cariou has previously held a long and distinguished career in the theater, including originating male leads in two landmark Stephen Sondheim musicals. In Broadway and the Bard, he is able to give full voice to an idea that he has harbored since his first prophetic Broadway season when he appeared as Shakespeare’s Henry V and then, the following spring, starred the musical, Applause; that is, combining histwo great loves – Shakespeare and American Musical Comedy – into one rich and diverse tapestry; outfitting trenchant classical soliloquies and sonnets with inventive musical pairings frombeloved writers of the Great White Way – the result is an eighty-minute melding of superb soliloquy and memorable song by a one-of-a-kind master actor of exquisite vintage in what the Bardmight refer to as “a most rare vision.”

The creative team for Broadway and the Bard also includes Josh Iocavelli (sets) and Matt Berman (lights and sound). The tour is produced by special arrangement with Aruba Productions, LLC and Starry Night Productions.